In Need Of Family
by Kare Uta
Summary: After the Abbey, Tala and Bryan are brought in by a family. The woman happened to know Tala's mother and the redhead is desperate to get answers from her about his mother and how she died, even though he knows part of the truth. Oneshot.


With a dark sky above, only slightly illuminated by the stars that were shining bright in the night sky

_**In Need Of Family**_

With a dark sky above, only slightly illuminated by the stars that were shining bright in the night sky. His form shook only a little bit as he continued to suppress the sobs, tears freely pouring out of his bright blue eyes and onto his somewhat contorted features. A finger tip pressed against a tear on his cheek, pressing against his skin lightly before brushing it aside. He opened his eyes, seeing the tiny four year old standing there. "Go away Irina." He murmured, turning over onto his other side.

She did as she was told to, although running back into the house, the kitchen particularly where Bryan sat on the table and the child's mother bandaged his right arm carefully. She moved closer to her mom, tugging at the hem of her dark red shirt, "Mommy," she whispered, trying to be subtle about wanting attention.

The mother smiled at Bryan and patted his arm lightly as she finished up, then picking her daughter up into her arms, "What is it sweetheart?" she asked.

"Tala's crying again." She whispered in her mother's ear, trying not to make it obvious to the overly-concerned best friend.

Bryan easily heard her though, jumping off the table and tugging his sleeve down, "I'll go check on him."

"No." She stopped him, putting a hand out. She turned to her child, smiling down at her as she set her on the table, "Bryan's going to tuck you into bed, I'll check on you later." She kissed her forehead, then helped her off the table, "Bryan hurt his arm, so don't ask him to carry you up the stairs, okay?" she checked, crouching to her level.

"Okay, night mommy." The girl hugged her mother who was at her level, then letting go and putting her hand up to Bryan for him to take.

As Bryan was about to walk past the older woman, she patted his shoulder lightly, "Don't worry Bryan, I'll handle this." She walked out into the garden, looking around the large open space for the young redhead. She found him on a deckchair by the pool, lying on his side and staring into the dark depths of the water. Come to think of it, his eyes and the pool were so alike. Bright blue with some light behind them, empty water in each that made it only sadder to watch. "Tala…"

"Can't I be alone just for a few minutes?!"

The thirty-something woman sat down on the deckchair at his feet, "Usually you could but when you're like this, then no." she sighed softly, looking on at him a little sympathetically, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"That's not true." She reached out and wiped the tears from his ice cold cheeks, "Just take a deep breath and tell me what's going on sweetie."

He sat up, pulling the cushion he'd been resting his head on to his chest and curling his torso over it, dubbing over till he could recompose himself. Once managing he sat comfortably against the chair, staring up at the sky and trying to shrug off the depressing feelings. "You said you knew my mom…"

The older woman nodded slightly, "I was in the Abbey as a nurse for about a year when I met her, I grew close to her and I was the one there to help deliver you."

"Did she suffer?"

"Tala, child birth is painful but…"

"I mean when Boris killed her…after she had me. Did she suffer?"

The woman sighed softly, moving closer, "Tala…"

"It's a simple question! You were there, you know _how_ it happened, you know _what_ happened, you're the only person that can answer me."

She wrapped a long arm over his shoulders so he'd have no choice but to look at her, "I was only twenty-one when all that happened, yet she trusted someone as young as me with all her heart. She told me that I had to try my best to take care of you, in the Abbey I could do little to help you and take care of you, but the moment that I heard that police had found out about the Abbey I was the first one to come forward with information and ready to bring you into my life, I did the same with Bryan because I know that he is your best friend and he needed help as much as you did. I have tried to take care of you like your mother would've wanted me too; I know that the last thing she would've wanted me to tell you is the manner of her death or if she suffered or not."

Tala grabbed onto her arm tightly, gripping it with a great amount of strength as he began to speak again, "I need to know. I know that I can handle it."

"Well I _know_ that you can't _handle_ it." She said sternly, "If you could handle it then you wouldn't be in tears already. You're upsetting yourself just by what your imagination is giving you, if you could handle it then you would wait for my answer before panicking this much." She then caught onto his hand as the pressure never ceased, "And you have to learn not to use such strength on people. You really hurt Bryan back there too."

Tala's body shook with sobs, forcing himself to shrug her arm off of him and shield his head with his arms, "I need to know about her."

"No, you just want to be able to know something about her, how things got from one thing to another. I'm not going to tell you a thing about her other than that she was a great woman who loved you from the second she realized you existed." She stroked his back carefully, her nails digging lightly into his shirt and causing comforting strokes against his skin, soothing his pent up emotions, "You have an amazing ability to feel emotions just from a description of an event. I will _not_ torture you by recounting your mother's death to you. I'm sorry but it's something I just won't do."

"How does someone just take their mind off something like this?"

"They don't find it easy, and sometimes its not best to just forget about it, but you can't let it put you down like this. I'm sure you never really gave her this much of your attention in the past, you want answers just because you know that you have access to them through me." She wrapped an arm over his shoulders tighter and pushed his hair back carefully, "Don't worry about that so much. It's time to focus on the present. I know that you are still devoted to your mother, even though she wasn't around more than a day after you were born, but she loves you and you love her and I hope that despite that love you have for her, you can still make some room in that heart of yours for me."

"I can do that much." Tala smiled and nodded, resting against her shoulder. "You were good to me in the Abbey, you were good to everyone who needed it. Whenever Boris tried to hurt us, you'd try talk him out of some of it, if you didn't manage you were there for us after, even though he threatened you."

"He thought I got amnesia in the crash of the Abbey, that's why he made me leave. Otherwise I would've been there with all of you for a lot longer but I got myself out of there so that if the time came when you could all get out, then I'd be able to look after you. I was no real use to you in there, especially if Boris killed me. The last thing you needed was another mother-figure getting killed."

Tala hugged her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder, "Things turned out well in the end." He murmured brokenly.

"Imagine my surprise when I realize you grew up into such a handsome boy, when all I've ever known you as was a baby or a child." The older woman laughed, hugging him back.

"Imagine my surprise when I found out the most rebellious woman I knew ended up with a psychologist for a husband and had a beautiful baby girl too."

"Darling, I think I was the _only_ woman you knew." She reminded him, pulling away from him and wiping his remaining tears, "Boris only hired me because tests showed that kids need a bit of a mother-figure once in a while. When he got rid of me and never replaced me I guess it was because he just said to hell with it."

Tala exhaled softly, still smiling vaguely, "Where's Bryan now?"

"Upstairs, putting Irina to bed."

"Did I hurt his arm badly?"

"It's just a scratch, pretty deep, but otherwise its fine."

The redhead got up, exhaling for another time, "I need to go apologize, right?"

The woman smirked at his stubbornness for such things, standing up and patting his shoulder, "It's definitely going to scar, and you know how he is about scars."

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then." He huffed, walking past her. "Thanks for your guidance as always." He said in a fairly sarcastic tone.

She laughed, lying back comfortably on the deckchair in his place, "You're welcome."

_**--A Week Later--**_

A loud knock resonated through the originally-silent room of the youngest teen. "Who is it?" he asked through a grimace.

"Zilya."

"Come in."

The older woman entered the room slowly, shutting the door silently behind her. "Hey." She watched him turn around, scratching at his bandaged arm, "Does that still hurt?"

"Who knew that Tala's nails could cause a bad rash if drawn over skin?" Bryan replied bitterly, eyes flaring with anger and fingers flexing as he tried to stop the compulsive itching.

"Do you want me to take a look at that?"

"No, it'll stop." He silently hoped it would at least, sitting down at the foot of his bed, "What did you need?"

"I need you to take Tala out of the house for a few hours tomorrow."

Bryan raised an eyebrow at her. Here was the woman who was obsessed with keeping Tala in safe places, asking him to take him out. "Why?"

"Because tomorrow is his birthday and I want to do something special for him. Like you, he's never had a birthday before so I want to do something for him for once. He doesn't know the date but I do."

Bryan forced a smile. He loved her consideration for the older boy, yet maybe she hadn't thought the whole thing through. "I think he may like that but…the thing is, maybe he doesn't want to be reminded of that day. You know bad things happened that day too, and with Tala, he _will_ make the bad outweigh the good in his mind."

She sat down beside him, nodding in understanding, "I know, but I think he needs this. It's his birthday, I can't just pretend I don't know about it, I can't do that and I think his birth deserves at least _some_ recognition."

"Fine," Bryan gave in after too little of a fight, "I'll take him out tomorrow but you had better be ready to pick up the pieces if this thing backfires."

"Well hopefully it won't backfire." She smiled, "Thanks for the help. I just need him out of the house at about three, back home about six-thirty." She got up and he could've sworn he never saw someone that happy about something. "Thanks." She gave him a brief hug, then hurrying out of the room to make plans.

_**--Next Day--**_

"I don't understand what the rush was to get back home, Bryan." Tala sighed with frustration, fidgeting with the keys in the lock and opening the front door.

"Zilya and the shrink are out tonight, I think. It's too early to go to a bar and I need a drink before they get home." Bryan replied, speeding up his pace as he went down the hall to the kitchen, Tala following close behind him.

"And we all know how Zilya is about you drinking all the time." Tala heard Bryan hit the light switch, just as his eyes were covered quickly.

"Guess who." Someone laughed from behind him.

"Bryan, I think your chances of your drink have been ruined." Tala said, prying Zilya's hands off his eyes, laughing as he turned back to her.

"Happy Birthday Tala." Irina wished him happily, grinning as she leaned forward and extended her arms.

Tala's face dropped, "Huh? Happy what?"

"Happy Birthday." Zilya laughed, picking the lid off a cake case. "It's your birthday. We would've made a bigger fuss and yelled 'surprise' but I figured the fact that it was your birthday was surprise enough." She laughed, guiding him closer to the cake while watching his dumb-founded face.

"Wait, slow down, today's my birthday?"

Irina continued to smile sweetly, yet looking like a mature girl who understood the situation perfectly. "Everyone should be happy on their birthday Tala, no matter what happened."

"Spoken like her father." An older man pulled Irina up into his arms, smiling at the girl.

"So," The older woman began slowly, picking up a lighter and lighting the candles on the cake, "Don't forget to make a wish."

"Make a wish?" Tala murmured confusedly.

"Yeah, blow out the candles and make a wish."

"But keep it to yourself!" Irina reminded him.

Tala smiled softly, nodding and biting down on his lip with thought. He then blew out the candles, one thought in mind as the rest around him either hugged him or told him happy birthday again. He moved away a little as Irina handed her mother plates for the cake, Tala moving to the back of the room where Bryan was. "Did you know they were going to do this?"

Bryan shrugged, smirking, "She really wanted to do this for you. She probably would've gone a lot more overboard if it weren't for the fact that she didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. I wouldn't have put it past her to bring up more birthday traditions."

"It's nice that she remembered." He said timidly, leaning back against the wall and watching the happy family in front of him; his new family.

"Yeah, it is."

"Hey, Tala, first piece of cake for the birthday boy." Irina smiled widely, handing him the plate with cake.

"Thanks." Tala took the plate from her and kissed her forehead lightly, making her smile all the more.

Bryan got a piece of cake too a moment later, "So Tala," he began quietly, so close to Tala he didn't need to shout, "your first birthday, may you have many more." He smiled.

_**A/N: It's my friend's birthday soon so I was in a birthday-ish mood so I thought I'd write something related to birthdays. I figured I always give Bryan the depressing stories so I shifted things to Tala a bit more this time. Take care everyone, let me know what you thought of this. **_


End file.
